First post from the International Atomic Energy Agency

So, I just realized that I have been neglecting the CLP blog this afternoon and will try to bring you up to date on my goings on in Europe.

I worked at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy for around 3 months, and really enjoyed my time there. The Institute really did a phenomenal job of helping me to realize what it is exactly that I might want to do after school and gave me good insight into what it is like to work at an NGO, and I discovered that I really enjoy it. Living in Berlin was also just an amazing experience; I don’t think there are many cities out there that can compete with the German Capital.

But, despite all of this, I decided to try my hand at another internship in Vienna, Austria, working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in the UNO City. So I packed my bags and jumped on a train to Vienna, and will be living here until August.

I first realized just how different the two internships would be when I arrived at the Vienna International Centre and had to go through something similar to airport security, which I soon realized I would have to do everyday before going to work, which is quite obnoxious. Once through security I got my first real look at how large the centre is, with six different towers, some with around 28 floors (which doesn’t seem big for us Chicagoans, but over in Europe is pretty tall) and around 5000 total employees, the complex is pretty large.

After my orientation I found out the biggest difference between the internships, which was my workspace. In Berlin I shared a workspace with about 8 other people, which, needless to say, would get pretty tedious. In Vienna, I have my own office, that is in a room fairly close to the same size as the one I use to share. This sounds like it would be a nice change, but, after much comparison, I think that I preferred to work closely with other people, it was easy to communicate, and was generally fun. Although in Vienna I have a nice 24th floor view of the Danube to make up for the lack of fun.

What has surprised me most through the process of changing internships is how similar the work is at the IAEA and ICD. I thought that going from an NGO to an IGO would be a completely different experience; however, it seems that, for the most part, things run in a very similar way, with the same types of tasks in need of completion in both organizations. This being said, its easy to see how great of an effect that bureaucracy has on efficiency at an IGO. It seems that everything needs to be approved by several people before anything can be completed.

Within the IAEA I am working on the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT), which currently is the major focus of the entire organization. As of now I have been working mostly as something of a press officer for the programme. I write information for the website, write correspondence for the office, construct and finalize official documents and write news stories. I just had my last story published on the front page of the IAEA website last week, which was exciting.

Our programme just launched a new project called the VUCCnet, which is a virtual university for cancer education in Africa. It’s meant to increase the number of medical practitioners dealing with cancer in the region, while keeping costs as low as possible. This form of education will also hopefully decrease the effects of brain drain in the area. I have been working almost exclusively for this project and have developed an increased interest in Africa. Its been a good experience so far and I hope that the interesting tasks keep coming.